Final Adventure
by wingedringwraith
Summary: This story takes place 4 years after golden sun 2 ends. Chapter 20 is finally done. Warning: Character Death in Later Chapters.
1. New Beginnings

I don't own Golden Sun. I don't own Isaac. I don't own Felix. I don't own Mia. I don't own anyone!

Wait. I own you points and laughs maniacally

HE MADE ME DO IT! points at evil person in mirror

Oh yeah, this is supposed to be a story isn't it? R&R please

Chapter 1

"Isaac! Come on you bum! You've been sleeping all day!"

I awoke to see Jenna standing over me: that look in her eye that told me plain as day I was in trouble unless she got what she wanted, whatever that might be. It had been 4 years since the golden sun rose over the peak of Mt. Aleph, and Jenna and I had been married for two whole years now, but she still complained I didn't spend enough time with her. It was probably true, since both Felix and I devoted most of our time to mastering our weapons and our psynergy since our journey that now seemed so long ago; still I felt there was a need to keep our skills at their maximum potential, especially knowing that Alex was probably still around somewhere and far more powerful than anyone or anything we had encountered on our travels.

"I said get up" her voice cut through my thoughts like a knife, snapping me back to reality. I got up and dressed quickly, then made my way downstairs where breakfast was prepared, though it was already past noon.

"Looks good." We both went to the table to sit down, taking each others' hands and remaining silent for a moment before beginning to eat. "So how is the baby?" I glanced fondly at the bulge in her stomach.

She smiled. Apparently she was in a good mood today, so maybe I wouldn't be in as much trouble as I thought. "The baby is fine. I haven't had any stomach pain for a while."

I smiled also, finishing my meal quickly as usual and getting up to go up the mountain to train with Felix and Garet.

"No you don't!" She was on her feet in an instant. "You need to do some things around here before you go to work on your psynergy again."

I turned with a slightly amused smile. This was certainly the Jenna I'd grown up with. Our relationship hadn't really changed much after we were married. Well, maybe fore a while. That first four to five months were always the best for that, but since then it was just like before the journey. "What do you have for me today?"

"You need to fix the window first, you promised to do that a long time ago. Oh, and before I forget, the guest room is NOT your personal clutter area! It needs to be cleaned up. We're expecting Ivan to visit tonight you know."

"Yes mother." I started to go for the window first, slapping her butt playfully as I walked by. She responded by jumping on my back with her arms around my neck in a strangle hold.

"I may be five months pregnant but I can still lick you any day!"

"Five months pregnant and five pounds heavier!" I ducked my head at the inevitable noogie that followed, both of us laughing by now. After a few minutes I managed to get her off my back and soon it was a tickling match, which I won easily since she was far more ticklish.

"No fair!" she complained as she finally gave up, lying on the floor helpless with laughter. We lay there for a few more minutes before she prodded my side "you still have work to do."

I laughed and got up, helping her up before going about my work. It was slow and boring, to be sure, but I didn't mind doing it really. At least I had something to look forward to when I was finished.


	2. An Old Acquaintance

I don't own GS or any characters from it.

Chapter 2

The minute I was done with my work I rushed up to the mountain, where I knew Felix would already be waiting, probably with Garet too. As I ran, I glanced around the town of Vale, which had been rebuilt slowly over the four years that had passed since its destruction. Everything, even the local sanctum, was exactly where it had stood before the appearance of the golden sun over Mt. Aleph. The town also seemed to have grown a bit larger, but that was probably because after the appearance of the golden sun many outsiders had been drawn to the area as though by some invisible force, and now lived on the slopes of the mountain.

"It's about time!" Garet's voice snapped me out of my contemplation. "I thought you'd never get here."

Felix shook his head with a smirk. "Always the impatient one," he said before turning toward me. "You ready?"

I merely nodded in response, finding myself in one of my silent moods, and started up to the mountain. We had done this many times since Mt. Aleph mysteriously made its reappearance on the landscape of Weyard, and by now we knew the path very well.

"Let's race" Garet started into a sprint as he spoke, drawing cries of protest from Felix and me before we started after him, our feet pounding up the rock slope. The feeling was exhilarating, and soon all three of us were in a neck to neck sprint that caused our legs, and lungs, to burn as they hadn't done since our adventure. We were about halfway up the mountain when suddenly something caught my attention to the right and I stopped suddenly, causing both Garet and Felix to run into me and tumble to the ground.

"What the hell?" Garet was on his feet in an instant, and not too happy. Felix followed him quickly, his own attitude leaving much to be desired, but I ignored the glares they gave me and pointed. "Look."

Following my gaze, they almost immediately saw what I had only a moment earlier. There, on the slope of the mountain, was an opening that we knew had not been there the day before when we climbed. It was a large opening, wide enough for perhaps five people and tall enough for at least two, and couldn't possibly have been missed in our previous ventures. Somehow, I knew what it was, and I could tell by their silence they were thinking the same. Sol Sanctum had returned.

Garet was the first to break the silence. "Let's go check it out!" he was moving even as he spoke, and I followed somewhat reluctantly, Felix close behind. I had a bad feeling about this, as though something were terribly wrong.

We rushed up to the opening and then into the sanctum, easily finding the passage to the inner sanctum, still intact as though nothing had ever happened, right where it had been many years ago. Everything was the same – even the trap still remained, and was still disabled. The only difference, we found as we finally reached the statues, was that the elemental stars were still gone.

Garet looked around, a look of awe on his face. "This is awesome guys! It's just how I remember it."

I frowned slightly, the small portion of the power of alchemy bestowed upon me warning me that something was not right. "I think we should get out of here."

"Aw come on." Garet didn't like the idea. "You're always too serious."

"I don't see the harm in checking it out." Even Felix seemed somewhat excited to rediscover this place. I sighed as they moved carefully across the slippery rocks to the statues, then stopped at a sudden tremor in the ground.

"So you have come." A figure floated over the sea around us. His hands, appearing more creature than human from scarring and other deformation, clutched an ancient looking staff that emanated psynergic power. His features were similarly unrecognizable, appearing charred and burned beneath the red hood that hung low over his brow. "I have been waiting."

"Who the hell are you!" Garet didn't wait for an answer, already going through the motions of an attack. "Liquifer!"

The unknown man laughed, lifting a hand. The powerful psynergy stopped as though it had come in contact with an invisible force and was flung back at Garet. With a cry, Garet fell back to the stone, groaning slightly before going completely limp. The voice spoke again, this time angry.

"Do not try that again." The harsh tones were a stark contrast to the smooth and even voice used earlier. It was then that it struck me.

"Alex. What is it you want?"

I saw Felix preparing something out of the corner of my eye. Whatever it was, I knew he wouldn't be able to penetrate Alex's defenses, and I tried to motion for him to stop. He seemed to be unable to see the signals, though.

"It is very simple." Alex's voice was smooth and even again, holding melodic undertones. "You know my dream has always been to rule the world. I can't very well do it like this."

I understood what he wanted immediately, still furiously trying to stop Felix from attacking. "You know we can't do that."

"Surely you cannot be so foolish as to believe you can defeat me." His voice held an odd mixture of appeal and threat. "If you do not join me, I will be forced to kill you."

Felix finished his preparations even as Alex finished speaking. "Grand Gaia!" A barrage of rocks shot up from the ground under Alex, their speed and size both improved with practice, but shattered on his defenses. Felix wasn't done, however, as he came up just under the attack, following it with blinding speed and lashing out with his blade. He might as well have hit a steel wall, for not only was his sword deflected but he himself was thrown hard to the ground, where he lay still also.

"You see, you are the only one left. There is still time to save them, and yourself."

I closed my eyes, shaking my head slowly. I reached out to my unconscious friends, focusing all my energy in extending my psynergy to their bodies. Alex must have seen what I was doing, because his eyes narrowed and a great beam of ice emitted from somewhere in the air. I spoke the word quickly. "Teleport!"

In an instant we were back outside of the mountain, standing on the slopes. It quaked below our feet for a moment as I picked up Felix and Garet, using my psynergy to aid me, and ran swiftly down the slopes. As I reached the town I felt Alex's voice in my mind. "We will meet again soon. And you shall not escape so easily next time."


	3. The Dream

I don't own Golden Sun or any of the characters

Chapter 3

I continued down the slope, the warning and threat ringing in the back of my mind, and used my psynergy to carry my companions with me. Both were injured, but still alive, though I knew if they didn't get help before too long neither of them would remain so, and the thought made me press on faster, running now as fast as I could down the shaking slope. The earthquake, or whatever caused the shaking, grew stronger, and I had trouble keeping my footing as the rocks shifted beneath me. I suddenly found myself stumbling. I could only think 'come on Isaac, you're almost to the bottom,' before I finally lost my balance completely and fell forward. The last thing I remembered then was my head making contact with a hard object, probably a rock, and then I slipped into unconsciousness.

"Isaac!" I looked up and rubbed my eyes slightly. The voice was indistinct, but familiar, and I knew somehow it was out of my past. Slowly my eyes began to focus, and in the blur before me I began to make out shapes and forms. The scene that greeted my eyes was completely amazing to me. I was in a cave, thousands of miles from where I should have been, and Babi was standing before me. The last time I had seen him was on the long journey that started this whole ordeal I was in now, and even then it was only briefly, where I agreed to help him find Lemuria, and again a couple other times during the journey. Yet why I was here before him now was a mystery to me.

"Alchemy has been released upon the world." His aged face wrinkled slightly as though in thought as he looked upon me.

"It was the only way to save Weyard."

"The only way to save Weyard." He repeated the words thoughtfully, his lips curling up into a smirk. "and the only way for me to find my lemurian draught of course."

I merely shrugged.

"But you had a problem. You failed to see the final goal. The finest warrior in Colosso could not even prevent a single enemy from bringing down his friends."

I scowled slightly at the words. I was in no mood for this kind of conversation. "Save it."

"You don't like that, do you? How about this then? There are many secrets in this world. There is one you must find before you can destroy Alex."

"I suppose you can tell me where it is."

He merely smirked again and did not respond. "How about if I just kill you instead?" He lunged suddenly with a halberd. I didn't even have time to draw my weapon.

"Isaac!" My eyes fluttered open and I found myself in the sanctum. It only took me a second to realize I had been dreaming, and another moment to discover that I had a splitting headache. As my eyes focused I looked up and saw Jenna, with many others from our village, gathered about 3 beds in the sanctum, one of them being mine. I realized the other two must hold Felix and Garet. I raised my head despite the sharp pain that shot through it at the action and scanned the group. I was surprised to see Ivan among them, till my wayward mind reminded me that Jenna and I had been expecting him for quite some time. 'Good,' I thought, 'then it must still be the same evening.'

"How long have I been out?" I spoke only this aloud.

"Almost 2 days." The answer shocked me. "Ivan said he needed to stay until you awoke."

"What about Garet and Felix? They haven't been asleep all this time too have they!"

Jenna glanced toward the other two beds before shaking her head sadly. "They show no sign of waking soon. I really wish you would be more careful training up there. The three of you took an awful beating."

That brought all the events on the mountain back. "Jenna! Alex! He's back!" I sat up quickly. "


	4. An Old Friend

I DON'T OWN THEM U.U –sobs-

Chapter 4

To my surprise the revelation was greeted with laughter, though it abated quickly and Jenna looked concerned again. I was relieved to see that her initial disbelief had ended and she was taking the statement seriously.

"Are you alright?" I blinked in surprise as she felt my forehead. "I think you hit your head pretty hard during that earthquake. Maybe you should get some more rest."

I stared in disbelief. "Didn't you hear me? I said Alex is back! I saw him!"

She pushed me back down into the bed. "You've been out for two days. I don't know what kind of dreams you've had but I think you're not fully recovered yet. You should stay in bed for a while longer."

I sank back with a resigned sigh. So I had been dreaming. At least that's what everyone there would believe. I tried to sleep but my mind wouldn't let me. Felix and Garet were still out, and there was no knowing when they'd awake again. I knew I had to protect Jenna, and the rest of the townspeople I suppose, at all costs. I focused on that thought and, with that in mind, finally went to sleep.

When I awoke again Jenna was the only one remaining in the sanctum. She was kneeling by the bed, her head resting lightly on my chest, and her breathing indicated that she was probably sleeping. Careful not to disturb her, I reached a hand up to entangle the fingers lightly in her dark hair, letting my hand cradle her head a little. She shifted a little beside the bed, but made no other motion. With a soft smile I tilted my head forward to kiss the top of her head gently.

It was at that moment that the door opened and Ivan came in. I quickly pulled back, the action apparently awakening Jenna, who stirred slightly before blinking her eyes open slowly, looking first at me and then around to the door. Seeing Ivan, she smiled slightly, though making no move to rise.

"Hey Ivan." I spoke before she did. "Sorry to make you wait around."

Ivan smiled. He looked quite a bit different than when I had traveled across Weyard with him in the search for the elemental stars. Of course, a small part of that was that he was wearing bed robes rather than his battle garment, and carried no weapon. However, he had grown taller as well, and from his appearance more muscular also, though he remained quite slender, a feature that was accentuated by his height (he was almost as tall as Garet now."

"Hello Isaac, Jenna. It is good to see you're recovering Isaac."

"Yeah – save it. You wanted to see me about something?"

"Isaac!" Jenna glanced at me. "That was rude"

I mumbled slightly. "Sorry. I'm a bit moody right now. A lot happened you know."

Ivan immediately changed the subject. "Well – what I wanted to tell you is that I have had dream warnings of a new power arising on Weyard. The dreams do not speak of much, merely signs of death and suffering. However, in this case I would not expect effects such as we experienced last time. Alchemy should sufficiently balance the powers on Weyard, just as it saved Prox after we finished our journey. You should know this, though, because it will be those like you, and Felix, who were leaders in our adventure and endured much, that will be called upon to defend Weyard should this new power make itself known as I have foreseen."

I glanced at Jenna before nodding slightly, my eyes half closing. I wondered if Garet and Felix would wake up soon. I hoped they would, because then they'd be able to confirm my tale of meeting Alex deep within Sol Sanctum. "Thanks for the warning. I'll do my best to be prepared."

Jenna looked up toward Ivan. "See if you can do anything for my brother and Garet." She indicated the beds where the other two still slept. "I know you're not a healer – but maybe contacting their minds could help to bring them back."

Ivan looked toward them and seemed to hesitate before slowly moving over to the two, looking at their faces before slowly putting a hand out, the psynergy working as he made contact with each of their minds. After a few moments, though there was nothing else that happened, their breathing became somewhat easier and sounded as if they were now deep in slumber, no longer unconscious and barely clinging to life.

"I have done what I can." Ivan smiled before turning and walking out the door, the words "Till next we meet" coming back over his shoulder as he left.

After he was gone I leaned back again, feeling the urge to sleep once more. I felt the warmth of Jenna's head as it rested on my chest again, and with one arm I reached out impulsively and slowly pulled her to the bed next to me, letting her head still rest on my chest. I wrapped my arms around her gently, the warmth of her body near mine slowly lulling me to sleep.


	5. Back to Normal

Once again, the characters from Golden Sun are not mind (for those of you who are tired of seeing this just skip it and get to the good stuff XD)

Chapter 5

When I finally opened my eyes again the room was crowded. I sat up somewhat groggily, shaking my head to clear it, and soon was able to focus again. Ivan was the first to notice that I was awake.

"Isaac! Garet and Felix are awake!" Obviously whatever it was he had tried last night had worked.

I got up quickly and went over to where the others were gathered. Felix was sitting up on his bed, but Garet remained laying down, looking half asleep. Not surprising, I thought, considering that it was Garet. More likely than not he wanted to be asleep still, but people were peppering them with questions.

"What happened up there? Are you alright?"

Felix shook his head as though trying to think. "I don't know. Last I remember we were on the mountain waiting…"

Garet spoke up after a few minutes. "Hey. Didn't we race up the mountain?"

"That's right!" Felix said. Apparently he was beginning to remember. Now they'd know I hadn't been dreaming.

Felix continued. "Then that awful earthquake came – I couldn't keep my footing." He held the back of his head slightly. "Man that must have been a hard fall."

I stared in disbelief as Garet nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah – we're lucky we're still alive."

I sighed and sank back down to my bed, my head resting on my hands. Was it possible I had only been dreaming? That the others were right? Maybe Alex hadn't come back. It seemed too impossible to be true, but neither Felix nor Garet seemed to remember the inner sanctum. I sighed and shook my head.

I suddenly felt an arm around my shoulder, but I barely moved as I slowly felt the warmth of the rest of Jenna's form as she sat down next to me. "Don't worry honey. I'm sure you'll be able to forget about your dreams soon. Just stay home and forget about training for a few weeks."

For the first time I honestly hoped she was right. If this was all a dream, and there was no danger to Vale, maybe I would be able to go on with my life at home as though nothing had ever happened. It would be the first time since before the adventure I could live a comfortable life, without worrying about the world outside. Only then the world didn't have the power of Alchemy. Now, because of the actions of the "heroes of Weyard," alchemy had been unleashed again on the world.

"Alright…" I patted her hand gently. "I'll stay home. Maybe I will be able to forget all this." Maybe, I added in my mind, it was really just a dream and no more.

"Good." She smiled happily. "Ivan is going to be here for a while too. He wants to stick around until you and Felix and Garet all recover, help out in any way he can you know."

I nodded, my mind still trying to cope with the idea that what happened in the sanctum had all been a dream. "You must have been worried."

Her silence answered the question more fully than words ever could. After a moment she spoke again. "I'm just glad to see that you've recovered. I hope there's no lasting damage."

I hadn't thought about that. "I'm sure there won't be. Garet and Felix should be up and around in a couple days, if not sooner."

She laughed slightly "Garet will stay in bed for a couple weeks if we let him. Somebody's going to have to get his ass out of that bed sooner or later, and it's not going to be me."

"It'll probably be his sister. Nobody else is willing to face his wrath when he wakes up."

We shared a laugh before she spoke again. "Well, I'll be glad to have you off that mountain for a while. You spend a lot of time up there." Her hold around my shoulder tightened, and for the first time in our marriage I felt slightly guilty about the training.

"I know… I'm sorry, but I want to be able to protect you if anything happens."

"I've always trusted you to protect me." She slowly moved to rest her head on my shoulder. "I just wish you could feel that you can protect me without spending so much time away from me."

I didn't answer. I couldn't answer. I realized there was no real reason now. I just couldn't stand feeling helpless, as though something could happen and there was nothing I could do. She waited for a few minutes for me to respond before sighing and leaning against me slightly.

I waited a few minutes before standing up. "Let's go home." I slowly rose, pulling her up with me before wrapping an arm around her waist and slowly going back to our house. I promised myself I would be more careful to spend time with her, and less time training from this point on.


	6. The Sickness

Er yesh… Golden sun... characters… you know… belonging to them, not me, that whole ordeal. IT STILL MAKES ME CRY U.U… MEANIES!

Chapter 6

The days passed peacefully for the next week, the sun following its normal course over the town of Vale, and the villagers living peacefully at the foot of the mountain still. I spent most of my time at home with Jenna, my dream still plaguing me and returning 100 fold in nightmares whenever I slept. Even those were beginning to abate, though, and it wasn't until the stars had completed a quarter of their rotation that the momentary silence was interrupted. I first heard the news from Jenna when she came back from the local market.

"Isaac! Have you heard?" She was out of breath, and I couldn't tell if she was excited, upset, or both.

"Calm down Jenna." I looked up from the table where I was working. "Heard what?"

"Garet's become ill!" She paused a moment to catch her breath before continuing. "It's nothing any of the healers have ever seen. The best healers in the sanctum can't cure him, and they're going to send a request out to all the far distant towns. They're even going as far as sending to Lemuria for help!"

I stood up quickly, moving to take her in my arms comfortingly as I considered the words. "I'm sure somebody will know." Even as I spoke something deep within me told me it was a lie. It seemed more likely to me that this was true now, as I thought of my memory of the events that had transpired. Maybe I hadn't been dreaming after all.

"I hope so." She was doing well not to cry I knew. I felt the same way really. We had been through so much together on our adventure, with Felix, Piers, Ivan, and Sheba, as well as the healer Mia who I hadn't really seen since our return, or heard from. It seemed so hard to believe.

"They'll find out a way." I repeated, more to reassure myself than her. "Maybe we should go see him."

She shook her head. "We can't. The elders won't let anyone but healers in – in case it's contagious."

"Surely they'd let us in!" I objected, though I knew even as I spoke it was useless. "We've known Garet for years, been through a lot with him. We were with him on the journey to save Weyard. Some little sickness isn't going to kill us."

"You know they wouldn't."

"I know… but I need to do something. I can't just sit here and do nothing. You know I can't."

"I know. You've always been that way." Her voice dropped to a barely audible murmur. "That's what makes it so hard." I guessed I wasn't supposed to hear that.

"Well. I guess all we can do is hope." I sighed. I hadn't really felt helpless since our grand adventure – well – not till now anyway.

She sighed and buried her head in my chest. "Isaac… I'm scared." Her arms tighten around me. "Something's not right about this."

I rested a hand on her head, the other still around her waist and wishing I could do something to comfort her, but deep down I knew that something was wrong as well; I had known all along really, ever since awakening and remembering that strange "dream" about Sol Sanctum. Something was wrong somewhere, but I couldn't put the pieces together: not yet.

A little time passed by and eventually she seemed to calm down. It was only when she stopped shaking a couple moments later that I realized she had been, and that I had been instinctively rubbing her back softly. It took me a moment more to realize my chest was slightly wet, and I knew then that she had been crying.

"Let's go talk to Felix." It seemed the best thing to do under the circumstances. He was the only other still in Vale who had experienced all we had – and he had also been up on the mountain with Garet and me some weeks earlier the day of my earthquake.

She seemed to brighten up a little at the idea of going to talk to her brother. I had an idea he might be as much in need of comfort as she was, and I wanted to talk to him about the mountain and Sol Sanctum to see if he remembered anything more than he had before. I desperately wanted to solve this puzzle now because I was afraid whatever had occurred wouldn't stop with Garet and maybe not even with Felix. I only suspected that the sickness was connected to what had happened on the mountain, and I knew if it wasn't then perhaps whatever the strange ailment was wouldn't stop till it had completely consumed not only those who had been on Mt. Aleph but also the whole of Vale.

The walk to Felix's house was longer than I had ever remembered it, but that was probably because of the occasion. This time there was no enjoying the beautiful green grass or the newly built houses along the way; to our eyes the world looked clouded as through a mist that would not go away for a long time, because something deep inside told us we were soon going to lose a close friend, and we didn't even know if it would end with him. When we finally reached the door to his house, we found him sitting outside on the porch, looking out toward the setting sun. He looked up when he saw us and smiled slightly, the kind of sad smile that turned the corners of the lips up but made the ones who were observing it want to cry. It looked almost as though it took every ounce of will in his body to wrench those lips upward, and his reddened eyes held a dose of something that almost bordered on depression, mingled with fear and doubt. I stopped in shock, and Jenna stopped for a moment before running to him.

"Felix! You look absolutely terrible. What's wrong?"

Felix turned to her, the smile leaving his face. "You've obviously heard about Garet. What more do you need to know?" There was much more, I knew, but apparently he didn't want to speak it here and now. Maybe he didn't want to worry his sister.

Jenna nodded. "I know. It's terrible… Isaac and I came down here because we thought maybe you could use somebody to talk to."

Felix nodded and patted her hand gently as I came up behind her, resting my arms around her shoulders. "Thanks." I could feel he was speaking more to her than to me, but I nodded my acceptance of the appreciation anyway. There were three of us back together now, and all of us had the same terrible premonition, or did we?


	7. The Sickness, part 2

-tap dances in- for your entertainment, I will sing the disclaimer this time.

-sings in a raucous, off-key monotone- I-I don't own Golden Sun, Golden Sun, Golden Sun: OOOHHHH I-I don't own Golden Sun. No it is not mine. –gunshot followed by sound of body falling-

Chapter 7

4 days earlier

Garet, Felix and I were able to get together for the first time since the incident on the mountain, and were discussing what had happened. I spoke nothing of Sol Sanctum, as I already knew the experience had been dubbed a dream by all those who heard of it, and most likely in the hearing of Garet and Felix as well, but I talked about everything else I remembered – including racing up the side of the slope. I was still trying to figure out how everything fit together, and until I did I knew I wouldn't feel comfortable talking to anyone about it. Garet had no problem talking though.

"I don't know guys, there's something weird: it's like there's something here I can't place." He leaned back lazily against a large boulder.

"Yeah, yeah. You've only said that how many times now?" Felix cracked his knuckles. "What I want to know is why there would be a sudden earthquake like that. Last time that happened Mt. Aleph was erupting."

"Yeah" Said Garet. "But still. I think it's important. I have this feeling like I should remember something and I don't, and you seem to think it's nothing. And Isaac here won't even talk about it." He motioned toward me with one hand.

"I just don't have anything to talk about." I sighed. "You guys both know why. Everyone in town knows why for God's sake!"

"We know." Said Felix. "I don't know why Garet suddenly feels the need to pester you about it, but I'm content to let everything rest as it is."

Garet sighed, his face becoming more serious than I had ever seen it before, except maybe when we came back from Prox on our adventure. "I can't really explain it. It's like I have a continuous flow of memory, and then, suddenly, and emptiness: a void. Everything just seems to begin sliding into the void any time I try to peer inside of it, as though it's trying to eat my memories. It's weird."

We were both staring at him now, but Felix was the first to break the silence. "Geez Garet – you're freaking me out."

Before Garet could answer, Jenna appeared at the top of the nearby stair to the bottom level of Vale, and all discussion about the incident stopped. "Yeah right Felix" Garet smirked. "I could beat you any day in a one to one battle."

"Oh yeah? Try me. Come on, we'll do it right now!" Felix jumped to his feet and headed for the area outside of Vale, not up the mountain though. We had all been a bit hesitant to go back up since the earthquake.

"Right! You'll be sorry you ever doubted me!" Garet ran after him, catching him fairly quickly as his longer legs gave him an advantage in speed.

Jenna shook her head. "Will those two ever grow up? Come on Isaac. Let's go." I nodded, taking the arm she offered, and headed back to the house with her.

Now, four days after those events, Jenna and I stood on Felix's porch, Jenna sitting lazily against me and still questioning Felix. Felix just stared into space, his eyes focusing on nobody and nothing, a blank expression taking his features. Finally, as though hearing nothing of what she said, he spoke.

"You know… it's weird."

I paused and looked up, having the most incredible feeling of déjà vu and not liking it in the least. Jenna looked at him oddly "what's weird bro?"

"This feeling. This emptiness." He half closed his eyes with a mirthless smile. "It's like there's this big hole in my memory, and every time I try to fill it, it just keeps getting bigger."

I looked up, troubled, and tried to catch his glance, but he didn't look at me. Something was wrong here – terribly wrong. I just wished I knew for sure what it was.

Jenna stared at him for a moment with wide eyes, speechless for a moment before she said quietly "bro?"

Felix said nothing for a long moment, then smiled again, the gesture looking real this time although it still clearly wasn't. He glanced from me to his sister, then let his head rest on his knees. "I'm fine. Don't know what came over me for a moment there."

Jenna smiled doubtfully, hardly looking relieved to hear that, and closed her eyes. I could feel her arms tighten on me, her hands clenching my back. Felix seemed to see it didn't help also.

"Don't worry." He offered. "Garet will get better soon." The change of subject was too convenient: too obvious. We both knew it wasn't Garet she was worried about now, but she merely nodded and remained silent, apparently accepting he would say nothing more.


	8. Felix and Garet

The next couple of days seemed uneventful, but even while we were working the time seemed to drag by for all of us, especially me. There was an almost tangible foreboding threading through the air about us, sometimes threatening to stifle us and the psynergy that we had come to depend on for our livelihoods. It was now the fourth day since Garrett had fallen sick, and Jenna and I were eating dinner when I heard a knock on the door. I sighed and got up to answer it.

"Isaac." I was surprised to see Ivan there – I had been sure that he left town already. "Is Jenna around?"

"She's just inside." I replied. "What happened? I thought you left already."

"I came back because of a vision – because of a premonition I had on the road, and it was a good thing I did. I just came from Felix's house – he's fallen sick, just like Garrett, the family tells me."

Despite the suddenness of the news and the fact that he had not even attempted to break it gently, I found that I was not at all surprised by this bit of information. In fact, I had spent the last few days dreading hearing precisely that. My one thought now was how to break it to Jenna.

"She's not going to like the news." Only when he spoke was I aware of the light intrusion into my mind. I shook myself from my gathering concerns and half glared at him.

"Alright, alright." He said as the presence retracted itself. "I just wanted to see how you were taking it. It's obviously not a surprise to you."

"Indeed." I sighed, then slowly turned back toward the house. "Well, we might as well tell her."

"We?" Ivan sounded slightly incredulous. "I'm definitely not going to be the one to break it to her. You're her husband, Isaac – you can tell her. I'm going back to see if there's anything else I can do."

"Fine, chicken out on me too." I could understand, though – once the news was broken he would probably feel out of place anyway – he was the only one of our group who was separated from the current problem – all of us except Jenna had been out on the mountain at the time Felix and Garrett had been injured, and all three of us were closely tied to her, not only by blood (in the case of her brother) and marriage (in my case), but also by the many years we had spent growing up and traveling together. Ivan, however, had been a traveling companion – and a close one – for many years, but after that he had left and we had not seen him since the lighting of the last lighthouse those many years ago. He would always have a place in our hearts, but of the group of wanderers he was the most separated from our community.

I broke the news to Jenna as well as I could – I don't even remember what I said or how long I held her that night, but I do know that my thoughts journeyed back into the darkness for many hours before I finally went to sleep, my shoulder still wet from my wife's tears. However, I finally managed to get to sleep, and the darkness slowly swirled up to meet me.


	9. The Second Dream

I awoke in a stupor, once again far from home, and it took a few minutes for the darkness that clouded my vision to subside, revealing a scene that I knew for sure was from my journeys. I stood in the ring, ready for the final battle of Colossus, and my opponent wore the same smug look that I remembered him having before I had handed his ass to him. This time, however, I had become much more powerful, and I needed only hit him with a couple strong attacks to down him. I stepped to the center of the ring and raised my hands in a gesture of victory, but to my surprise the spectators didn't erupt into cheers as they had before. I turned back to look at the fallen warrior, but to my surprise he had risen, his sword held steady in his hand. I used my psynergy and summoned a colossal earthquake, even opening the ground and causing it to swallow him in its maw, but he re-emerged moments later unharmed. Fear began to grip me now, knowing that my enemy was invincible, but then Babi intervened, separating the two of us and focusing his attention on me.

"There are many secrets in this world." His voice sounded oddly distorted as he spoke. "Many secrets, and one that you must learn before you can destroy your enemy." His eyes seemed to bore into me and I shrank back, but then he just turned and walked back into the crowds.

"Wait!" I cried as he left. "What secrets? What do I need to know?!" I ran after him, still shouting, but the only answer was the murmur of the crowd, and the old man was nowhere to be found. I sighed and sank down on my knees in despair.

It was about that time that I woke up, and began to think through the dream that I had. I could easily see the many similarities to the dream before it, and I knew that this could not be a coincidence. It was some kind of a message, perhaps from somebody who knew the answer, but apparently I was going to have to figure this one out myself. On my last journey I had taken several of my friends with me, but on this one I knew that I could bring nobody with me. Garet and Felix were sick already, and my wife was five months pregnant – I could hardly ask any of them to accompany me.

'There's always Ivan.' The thought came unbidden to my mind, but I shrugged it off. For some reason I knew that Ivan could not come with me, and I had already resolved to see this through, regardless of the result. I glanced down at Jenna, who still lay with her head resting against my shoulder, and smiled, one of my hands moving reflexively down to stroke through her soft dark hair. I began to wonder if she would understand why I had to leave, or if I should just go secretly and not tell her. I realized immediately that I had to tell her before I left. I would have to research a few things anyway, and that could take a while, maybe even as long as a week. I realized the journey itself wouldn't take long. With my teleport abilities, I could travel practically anywhere in Weyard in the blink of an eye, but I had to know where I was going before deciding on a location.

"Mmmm.." Jenna moved slightly against me and her eyelids fluttered open. She glanced up at me. "Good morning, honey."

"Good morning." I smiled and leaned back against the headboard of the bed. "Well, I don't have much to do today, so I suppose I'd better get to studying."

"Studying?" She looked at me questioningly, her head tilting to the side as it often seemed to when she was curious.

"Mmm-hmm." I commenced telling her everything that had happened over the last few weeks, finishing with my dreams and the connection between them. Her brow furrowed as she listened to the tale, and by the time I reached the end I could see that she was sharing my concerns concerning Felix and Garet. She sighed and laid her head back against my shoulder.

"I don't like it – knowing that you're going to be gone, but I know why it's necessary." She spoke quietly, and I could hear from her voice that she was both worried and slightly afraid. "At least I have some time before you leave – I may at least be prepared to handle it."

I couldn't think of any response, so I just pulled her closer to me and closed my eyes. It was going to be a difficult time in the next week or so, I knew, but I also knew that I had to see this through, regardless of what I truly wanted. Both Garet and Felix could die if nothing was done, and I knew that whatever had happened to them had been caused by Alex when he attacked us on the mountain. I could start work later, though – for now, I just wanted to lay back and find some comfort holding my wife in my arms.


	10. The First Death

It was almost a week later, and by this time I had already discovered everything that I could about the coming journey. I had spent hours in Kraden's library, and finally found a book that dealt extensively with alchemy, and, most importantly, the weaknesses that users of alchemy possessed. There was information that suggested a way to defeat the power of alchemy and a secret that lay hidden somewhere in the southern seas of Weyard, far beneath the surface of the water, and I knew that it was time for me to leave in search of the information, but I had been putting off leaving for the last couple of days since I had discovered the information. I wasn't quite ready to leave my home and my friends, and as far as I could tell I still had time before I had to leave. Perhaps I was also fearing the journey – the last journey that I had taken had been a success overall, though in the end I ended up doing exactly the opposite of what I had started out to do, but then, I hadn't had a power hungry, nearly immortal enemy waiting for me at the end of the journey.

Today I returned home feeling better than I had the last couple of days – my reflections had been less somber since I had found the information that I needed, and I found more comfort in my home, my wife, and my friends. It had been a long couple of weeks, but now I was almost ready to leave on the journey that would restore everything to the way it should be. I would wait a few more days, maybe spend the entire last day at home with my wife, and then I would discover how to defeat Alex and save my friends. I may have even had a smile on my face as I walked down the path to my house, ready to return to my wife and a quiet evening at home.

Whatever hint of cheerfulness had shown on my face, however, vanished immediately when I saw Jenna. Her eyes were reddened and slightly puffy, her hair slightly tangled, and I could tell instantly that she had been crying. I was suddenly filled with a terrible premonition, and before she even spoke I had a feeling that I knew exactly what she was about to tell me.

"Isaac – it's Garet." Her voice shook as she spoke. "He died sometime this afternoon…"

I was speechless – everything that I had thought about in the past couple of days seemed pointless now – I had been putting off leaving under the assumption that I still had time before I had to finish this, but now I knew that I would have to leave immediately. I slowly put my arms around Jenna, almost as in a dream, and rocked back and forth a bit, rubbing her back gently. I could feel the warmth of her tears on my shoulders as I held her, and I knew it was going to be hard to say what I needed to tell her.

"Jenna…" I spoke quietly. I think she could tell by my voice that I was going to say I was leaving, because her fingers tightened on my back and I could feel her tense a bit against me. "I found what I was looking for… I can leave now. There may still be time to save Felix."

I received no response, but I knew that she had heard and agreed with the logic of it. I also knew that I couldn't leave her just then – I needed to stay for a while, to let her collect herself, and then before evening I could be in a town on the southern coast. I knew I would have to talk to people who lived in the southern parts of Weyard to get a more accurate idea of how I might discover the secret of which I had read. For now, though, I just held Jenna – we stayed as we were for nearly an hour, and then, finally, I walked slowly away from the house, stopped when I was far enough from her and, with an encouraging, though not very heartfelt, smile, spoke the words that would teleport me to the southern regions of the continent.


	11. The Hidden Secret

The first person that I needed to talk to was Babi. Despite my ambivalent feelings concerning him, I couldn't deny that from the dreams that I'd been having that it was likely that he knew something of where this might be found. In my opinion, he still owed us something at least for finding Lemuria for him. I found him in his palace, still seeming relatively active despite his rather apparent age. He smiled when he saw Isaac.

"Isaac, it's good to see you. What brings the finest warrior in Colosso back to my little village?"

"Actually, I'm in search of something. I think that you might be able to help." I replied.

"Well, it can't hurt to ask. If I can help you, I'll tell you what I can, but I can't promise anything."

"Some of my friends are in trouble back home." I began. "I read a book that may have shown me a way to rescue them, but it speaks of a secret – a secret that exists somewhere in the south seas. I thought you might know of it."

"A secret in the south seas…" Babi's brow furrowed slightly. "I have heard of many things in the south seas, but no hidden secrets."

"The book said that it could be found beneath the surface of the waters." I pressed the issue, somehow certain that he could at least find a lead here.

"Beneath the surface?" A distinct light came to Babi's eyes, as though the words had called to his memory some fact long forgotten. "There is a story about a city that lies underwater in the far south. The story doesn't give the precise location, though."

"It doesn't?"

"Well," Babi sighed. "I suppose it claims to – at least. There is a puzzle, but it makes no sense to me, nor to any other that I know of."

"What is the puzzle?" I found myself growing more hopeful now.

"I can't remember it." Babi said. "However," he added, probably noticing the disappointed look that I failed to suppress, "I do have a copy of the book in my library."

I brightened immediately. "Can I look at it?"

"Certainly." Babi said. "Look all you like. You may want a pen and some parchment so that you can study the riddle further on your journey."

"Of course." I nodded. "Thank you for your assistance."

"It's the least I can do."

Without any further discussion, I headed into the library, following the directions that Babi had provided for me to get there. The library was impressive – the room itself was at least the size of my entire house, and the shelves extended as high as 20 feet in some places and stocked full of books. There was a large window on the eastern wall of the library through which the sunlight poured in and banished the shadows from the eastern portion of the room, but such was the nature of the library that the western portion still required torchlight in some areas that were secluded from the light in the east. It was in one of these places that, after an extensive search, I finally found a book entitled 'Wirai – A Safeguard against Alchemy.' I took the book to one of the lighter portions of the library, near the warmth of the sunlight filtering through the east window, and began to read.

The book spoke of a vault that lay hidden far below the sea. While it was far from the city that Babi had interpreted it to be, it had a few different buildings described and each of them seemed to possess a particular challenge that had to be completed prior to gathering the items that were distributed throughout the building. In order to gain the power to defeat alchemy, one had to collect the items from all of the buildings – there were three described, but the book hinted at a fourth that had a hidden challenge and the final item that was required. However, nowhere could I find descriptions of the items nor details about what they did. The vagueness was relatively disturbing to me, but regardless of this I knew that I had to find the place. Throughout the pages were scattered several different riddles relating to the position where one could expect to find the vault, and I copied this down to study and then went to the docks to look for an available ship.


	12. Finding a Ship

It was two days later when I found myself on the continent of Osenia, in the city of Alhafra. I was hoping to be able to hire out a ship there, since I had heard that the city had taken more to sailing the seas since my recent adventure had ended, and even had a thriving boat building industry going. When I arrived there, the first thing I did, after spending the night at an inn, was go to the docks and begin looking for captains to aid me in my quest. It didn't take me long, however, to discover that the captains of these vessels were only interested in making profit that was comparable to the risk attached – none of them wanted to risk the southern seas for a place that we weren't even sure existed, and honestly I couldn't really blame them. I was about to give up hope when an old man wearing an eyepatch and hobbling on a crutch addressed me.

"Yarrrrr, matey! I hear ye be wantin' to hire out a ship."

I just stared at him. If this raggedy old loon thought whatever kind of ship he still had left would get me anywhere, he was even more out of his mind than he appeared. "I'm fairly certain that I'm not interested in whatever you have to offer." I replied.

"Me ship's the best in these here waters!" He wheezed, then stuck out his hand. "Name's Ingun – the best pirate on these waters."

"I already told you, I'm not interested." The old guy was starting to irritate me. Even if he could get a ship afloat, it was almost certain that he couldn't command any kind of real crew.

"Yarrrr – ye'r not likely to find anything else in these waters." That caused me to stop, and I turned back toward him. As crazy as he was, he was probably right – nobody else would want to make the journey if I couldn't make it well worth their while.

"How much do you want?" I sighed.

"Me' ship'll take ye for there for 1500."

"Deal." I didn't even feel like attempting to bargain.

"But it'll cost you another 1500 to get back."

I started at that – I had exactly 3065 with me which, when food and water were accounted for, would leave me with about 3000 exactly to pay my fare. However, I knew I was in no position to try to bargain. I sighed, but finally spoke reluctantly. "Deal."

"Ye won't regret it, that ye won't!" The old man grinned, and started hobbling down toward the end of the docks.

My heart sunk as we came to the last ship on the docks – it was even more beaten down than I had imagined. There were several large holes just above the waterline in the bow, and the whole thing looked like it would sink if it were hit by a minnow. The masts were all leaning either to the port or the starboard, and the whole ship seemed about to tip over on its side in the water. The old man went out and surveyed the wreck.

"Thar' she is!" He grinned widely. "She's a beauty, ain't she?"

I was speechless. Somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking that I would be better off swimming in the island, but then, seemingly from nowhere, a man climbed up onto the pier and came toward us.

"Karl!" Ingun grinned. "I found a customer!"

I blinked at the sudden change in his voice and mannerisms, but even they did not prepare me for the sudden discarding of his eyepatch and crutch. "What's going on here?"

Ingun just looked at me with a sly grin on his face. "Oh these." He laughed, looking at his discarded items. "I find it amusing to wander around like that. People take me much less seriously, and it's good for business, I assure you."

"Ok…" I really didn't understand how that worked, but it didn't make much of a difference. The ship was still the worst I'd ever seen in my life.

"The submergible ship is ready to sail, captain." Karl spoke now for the first time.

"Good – let's depart, then – if our passenger has no objections." Ingun replied before the statement could fully register in my mind.

"Aye, aye, captain." Karl turned and went to the edge of the dock, where he descended a ladder that went down from the dock and began to descend. Ingun followed him and I, wondering what they were about, hesitated for a couple of moments before following them as well.

I was surprised when, looking down as I descended the ladder, I saw a small wooden platform that had something that appeared to be a door on the top of it. The phrase 'submergible ship' suddenly returned to my mind, and I realized suddenly that the wooden platform was bobbing up and down in the water. Greater was my astonishment when the door opened upward, and I saw a man waiting down a small ladder inside the structure, and then Karl and Ingun both descended into the vessel.

I descended onto the platform and just stood there for a moment, unable to fully comprehend what was happening. Ingun turned when he reached the bottom of the ladder and looked at me. I stared back at him after a moment, wondering why he continued to watch me.

"Well, are you coming?" His exasperated question pushed me back into reality, and I flushed slightly as I descended the ladder. The inside of the vessel was larger than I had thought it would be – it was almost just like a normal ship below decks, except that it was apparently watertight and also able to maintain air beneath the surface of the water. There were no windows, but lights that were obviously magical lit the interior of the ship and the cabins. I was directed through the ship to my own cabin, which was toward the aft of the ship. As we went through the small hallways that had doors opening up to either side, Karl explained a little bit about the ship to me.

"It's really a very remarkable ship, and it was very expensive to build and find a way to work." He said. "Its movements are guided by the will of its captain, and there can be only one captain at a time. The captain can relinquish his title to another if he so desires, or, if he does not do so during his lifetime, it passes on his death to the next highest ranking officer on the ship. We had the ship enchanted so that the wood has the magical quality of changing the water that would pass through it into air, so that we can keep a constantly livable atmosphere even down here below the surface of the sea. This ship has had the same crew for almost fifteen years now, and we rarely take on passengers because most people prefer to sail above the surface – not trusting the enchantments to hold against the sea around us."

"Well, I had very little choice." I observed. "I needed to get somewhere, and the merchant captains wanted nothing to do with the dangerous south seas."

"Indeed." Karl laughed at that. "The very thought of endangering their lives would probably cause them as much discomfort as an actual adventure. You might be able to persuade one of them, if you had several million to pay, but even then he would turn away at the slightest sign of danger, waiting for a 'safe route' to appear."

I made no comment, and in a moment I found that we were at my room. I was about to enter, but Karl stopped me.

"The captain wants to talk to you in a couple of hours." He said. "He needs to know how you expect to get wherever it is that you're going."

"Of course – I'll be there, if you'll just tell me where his cabin is." I replied.

"It is straight back the way we came, and all the way toward the fore of the ship." He replied. "You can't miss it – it's the largest door, and has the words 'Captain's cabin' engraved into it."

"Thanks." I nodded and went into my own cabin. I unpacked the few things that I had brought, and then began to study the book. I knew I only had about two hours to solve what I could of the riddles before I went to Ingun, and I wanted to have more to show him than just a few unsolved riddles.


	13. Riddles

I sighed as I looked over the first riddle in the book. It had been puzzling before – I had guessed that perhaps the answer lay in some of the regions of Tundaria where the rocks had been somewhat blue, but I had thus far been able to postulate a reasonable explanation for the rest of the riddle. The riddle was simply enough, and written in rhyme form. It read like this:

Where earth is bluer than the sky,  
And wind is wetter than the rain,  
A silent forest you will find  
Nestled between valley and plain  
Where horses without legs may run  
And trees may grow far from the sun

This was the first riddle in the book and thus, I determined, must be the starting point of the journey. The blue earth could easily have been the bluish rocks, I had thought at one time, but I had been unable to determine how the rest of the clues could fit into this interpretation. For instance, while the forest would be easy enough to explain, the wind that was 'wetter than rain' seemed preposterous, as did the idea of horses running without legs. In some ways, one might say the few trees that did grow on the southern continent were usually far from the sun, since the sun was primarily over the central regions of Weyard. Now, however, as I thought about my journey in this strange submergible vessel another thought came to mind. The ocean floor would appear blue, since the water would make everything appear more blue to the eyes, and the legend had spoken about the city as existing beneath the sea, so it would make sense for the journey to begin underwater. The only problem for most would be finding such a spot in the vast ocean, but with this vessel it shouldn't be too difficult, at least if there was any way to see outside of the wood that surrounded us.

I continued to read on to the next puzzle, which I was not sure of either but I figured would be explained well enough once we had solved the first. The second rhyme was written as follows:

The entrance is not east, nor west,  
Nor is it to the north or south,  
But when your doubt creates unrest  
Proceed into the toothless mouth.

There were other riddles that followed these, but I somehow knew that once the first was solved, the rest would be just as simple. For the time I would only worry about the first two, because after we found the entrance, there would be little need for more riddles – they would just serve as a guide to the vault itself, wherever that may have been hidden. I was pondering over the possibility of an underwater forest when there came a knock at my door.

I opened the door and looked out, and was surprised to see Karl standing there. I glanced at the timepiece that stood in my room – a magical time piece that kept the hours without the aid of the sun, and realized that my two hours were up. I quickly left the room and went to the captain's cabin, where I knocked on the well-marked door at the fore of the ship.

The door opened almost the instant that I knocked on it, and I was faced by Ingun, who stood on the other side, his hand still on the doorknob. "Arrrrr – ye' be late!" He reverted to the behavior I had seen on the docks. "I've a mind to keelhaul ye' if ye'r not more careful!"

My mouth opened as I sought for some sort of apology that would adequately explain my tardiness, but, being unable to think of anything, I merely stared stupidly at him. He looked at me and laughed, quickly reverting to his normal character. "You needn't act so shocked. We're generally not in the practice of keelhauling on this ship."

"Ah." My smile was still somewhat uncertain; I had yet to get used to this odd captain and was still trying to decide if he was crazy or just a bit eccentric. He had to be one or the other to operate a ship that ran beneath the waters. He seemed to read my mind, though, for he responded to the thoughts as though I stated them aloud.

"Nah, I'm not crazy. I prefer not to attract a lot of attention, unless it's from the right kind of people, if you understand my drift." He chuckled slightly. "This ship is rather an odd one, but if people found out that we were capable of sailing beneath the waters, there would be a high demand and very little supply. We had to bring this ship to master crafters before we could get it enchanted to survive the crushing depths."

"I see." I didn't quite, but I wanted to get to the point of what he had desired to discuss with me. There was still no explanation as to why he needed a ship that would travel beneath the surface of the water, let alone why so many others that he was trying to avoid would be interested in it.

"I could talk for a long time about the vessel, but I trust we will have more time for that in the coming few days – it will take us at least that long to reach any secluded spot in the southern seas. For now, I would like to talk about where you are going. I conclude that you have some idea, since you sought to hire a vessel to take you there."

"Actually, I do have a few things in mind, but the destination is not clearly described, nor are directions given except in riddles."

"Riddles, eh?" His face changed little, but I caught a sudden gleam in his eye as he spoke. "Tell me about those."

I pulled out my parchment and read off what I had copied down to him. When I had finished both riddles, I read the first one again, explaining that I believed that to be our starting point. He seemed to take little notice of my words when I had finished reading, though. However, I figured this might be a good time to ask him some questions.

"I figure now that this speaks of some place beneath the ocean, but what could it mean? I have never heard of winds that blow beneath the surface, nor of forests that grow in the depths."

"Oh, it is very simple, really." Ingun chuckled. "There are many winds beneath the surface, only we who sail among them know them better as 'currents.' Just as winds, they may go to the north, east, south, or west, and have varying strengths and speeds."

"That makes sense." I replied after thinking about it a moment. "But what about the mountains, valleys, and the forest?"

"When you have traveled under the sea as I have," The captain replied, "You will find that the ocean floor has just as much terrain as the earth that has no water covering it. The largest difference is the pressure of several hundred – and in many places even several thousand – feet of water pushing down upon it, and that all the life that fills these terrains is of a very different variety from that above the surface. In many places there are great plants that are so far beneath the surface, the light from the sun cannot even be seen."

I began to see a pattern developing here. Things that had been anomalous to my mind were easily grasped by one who had lived here on the bottom. What may have been unheard of on the surface seemed commonplace below the great oceans. I had a feeling that the other questions I had would be just as easy, but I asked anyway.

"What about the horses without feet?"

"There is a creature that lives below the surface. Because it is large, has a head that resembles that of a horse, and sometimes carries its young on its back, we call it a 'sea horse.' It is commonly found in the shallower waters, no more than a couple of leagues out from the shore, but it is possible that somewhere such a creature, or some similar to it, dwells in the depths where the light barely reaches."

I half smiled as I heard this. Apparently, finding this place was going to be easier than I thought. However, his next question came as something of a surprise, and was put more as a demand than an actual question.

"I would like to know what you are searching for – it must be important if it has been hidden away at such depths. Normally, I do not ask questions of my passengers, but I have aided you much in your quest and it seems that there may yet be much to do."


	14. The Attack

Two days after my discussion with Ingun, the ship, which was keeping to the bottom where we could see the ocean floor, entered an area where we began to see a deep blue coloration of the rock. Perhaps it was enhanced by the water that we were surrounded by, but it seemed to those of us looking at it that we had never seen anything that was so blue – a thought that was, perhaps, somewhat influenced by the words of the riddle in my mind, but many of the others who knew nothing of the riddle expressed the same sentiment. We were able to see through the use of psynergy – or rather, one particular sailor on the ship was able to use his psynergy to make any portion of the ship's walls invisible, and another to provide a light that would allow us to see even when the light of the sun was no longer visible beneath the waves. The blue rock seemed to extend for miles, and I could tell by the depth that we were far from any land mass at the moment. There was a fair bit of excitement at first, but it diminished after a few minutes as the exploration continued and turned up nothing new.

A couple hours later I heard some more exclamations to the fore of the ship on the starboard side. I hurried over to check it out, and there in front of us a veritable forest of large plants sprung up from the rock and sand that we were passing over. At first it seemed to me that they were too close together and would never permit an object as large as a ship to enter, but as we got closer I realized that they were much larger than they appeared. In a few more moments we had entered the forest, and were gliding across the bottom of it silently. Looking out, I could see many creatures living there, including a number of the "sea horses" that the captain had spoken of. These creatures were large, with heads that vaguely resembled that of a horse – particularly the eyes, and many with children mounted on their backs as well. They were about half the size of a man, and moved very quickly beneath the water. We could also see many other varieties of sea life, and catch glimpses of what appeared to be larger, more threatening creatures just beyond the reach of the light that surrounded us.

"Now to find the entrance." The captain said as we entered the forest. "It shouldn't be too difficult of a task. From the sound of it, we're looking for some kind of a cave."

That was true enough – the riddle had been simple enough to me as well – a toothless mouth was almost a cliché when it came to caves, and there were plenty of places that one could be hidden. As we progressed along, we noticed two large mountains that rose out of the forest nearby, and even ventured to explore them as far as the top of the forest, but upon exiting the reach of the plants we returned there, believing that the clue had meant the entrance could be found only within the forest.

Our first bit of excitement came when one of the larger creatures began to get over its apprehension concerning this odd new creature, and came out from the darkness into our view. The creature was enormous – perhaps three times the size of the ship, and in some ways resembled a giant squid. It had fifteen tentacles protruding from its main body, with the face and head nestled somewhere in the middle and a giant beak that was nearly large enough to engulf the ship, should it so desire. The eyes were either invisible or closed, but besides fifteen tentacles I had first seen it had three shorter ones with large, thick ends that looked as though they could be used for bludgeoning purposes. However, as it advanced it used none of these – instead it extended yet another tentacle – this one with a long, barbed spike on the end, and used it to ram into the ship.

In my experience this was about the time that everything just went to hell and I had to fight and somehow rescue the crew, but to my surprise there was no chaos involved in this battle. The captain quickly turned the ship, pulling away from the creature, while one of the others below – apparently the first mate, began giving orders. I immediately recognized the use of psynergy as a blade extended from the wood of the ship, cutting the tentacle off. The ship rocked violently for a moment as it broke free, and then we were speeding away. A moment later, though, the ship jerked backward so hard that all who were not holding tightly to something already where thrown to the floor. I shook my head, which had hit one of the walls rather hard, to clear it, and began to rise slowly to my feet. Around me, I saw several others getting up as well, though some still lay on the ground – probably unconscious from the fall. I looked out the back of the ship to see the creature's hideous face, now only a few meters away from us, coming up fast. We knew we had to do something – if it managed to bite through the wood – and judging from its size and the way its enormous beak was opening and closing it could easily do so – we would be finished.

I acted first this time. With all the power that I could, I summoned a great earthen blade from the rock outside the ship and drove it straight into the snapping beak. Everyone quickly grabbed tightly to something near them as the blade connected and the creature's head disappeared back into the tentacles. I just managed to get a tight hold on a post near where I stood before the ship began thrashing around violently. I continued to cling tightly as the shaking continued for several minutes, and then we went still. I looked out hopefully, thinking perhaps the creature was dead – but I saw the head reappear from the tentacles, re-examining its capture as though expecting to see it dead or immobile.

The next attack came from one of the other sailors near me, and once again we had to get a tight hold on something firm in the ship as the thing began thrashing again, electricity jolting through its veins. I could hear the boards creaking under the strain of the great tentacles, and it seemed to me as though they might break at any minute. I could see many of the others looking fearfully at the wood around them, which was beginning to bow in many areas under the creature's strength, and I knew some action had to be taken. Letting go of the post and somehow managing to maintain my balance, I used one of my strongest powers – summoning great chunks of the ocean floor to rise from their position and fall on the creature. I then pitched to the side as the thrashing resumed full force, and I had a vague sensation of my head striking against one of the tables before everything went black.


	15. Looking for the Entrance

I came to with a start, my hand automatically falling to the hilt of my sword as I sat up reflexively. My eyes took a moment to catch up with the rest of my body, but as the blur around me slowly came into focus I realized I was in my cabin and on my bed. I must have been moved there after the battle with the sea creature. I got up, then touched my temple lightly – there was a large lump, but it could easily be taken care of. I raised a hand to my head and concentrated on sending the healing energy through it. In a few moments, I felt as good as new, and I ventured out into the main area to see what kind of damage had been done.

"Ah, Isaac, you're awake." Karl was the first to speak when I came out from my room. He sat at one of the tables that was set in the crew common area, in the midst of what appeared to be a poker game with four other crew members. The common area was as tidy as ever, and inside the ship, at least, there was no evidence of the battle that had just recently taken place.

"What happened?" I looked around, slightly uncomprehending – I was beginning to wonder if I had dreamed the whole day – the blue rock, the sea creature, and the battle.

Karl must have seen the bewilderment in my expression. "The creature fled." He laughed. "There was no permanent damage to the interior of the ship, and we've cleaned up everything while you were sleeping. The outside appears to have acquired some damage, however – the captain says we'll have to surface before too much longer."

"Oh." I was relieved that I had not imagined the whole incident. "What of the entrance – any sign of it yet?"

Karl shook his head gravely. "We've scoured the whole forest, and can find nothing. The captain's just been waiting for you to wake up so that he can get your opinion, and then we'll surface and make some repairs. After that we can recollect, restock our food, and go back down to search some more. If you're feeling alright now, you can go in and talk to him."

I merely nodded and turned, walking down the corridor to the captain's cabin. I knocked on the door when I got there and, as before, it seemed to open of its own accord. The captain sat behind his desk, but he looked up as the door opened. "Ah, Isaac. Come in, my boy!"

I stifled the slight indignation that rose in me at being called 'my boy' and entered the cabin moving up and taking a seat opposite Ingun.

"I was hoping you might be able to offer some more input on the location of the entrance." He spoke before I had the chance to ask the question. "We seem to be out of ideas here."

I shook my head. "I was expecting to see some kind of a cave, but the men tell me that nothing has been discovered."

He remained silent for several moments after that, his eyes distant and far away as though he were trying to make some kind of decision. Finally, he looked back to me and sighed. "Well, there's nothing else to do, then. We must return to the surface and repair – perhaps while the men repair we can solve this riddle. Thank you for your time, Isaac."

The last sentence seemed to indicate a dismissal, so I turned and left the room. I sighed as I looked out one of the transparencies that still remained in the ship, watching the sea floor and the forest fall away beneath us as we made our way back to the surface. As we rose higher, I noticed the two mountains rising up out of the forest, and soon we had passed their peaks and I continued to look down at them. They were perhaps the oddest mountains I had ever seen, now that I could look on them from a distance. The one further to the northeast was shorter, while the one to the west almost seemed to hook up and over the other. I shuddered momentarily at the sight, being reminded of the horrid beak that the sea creature we had attacked earlier had possessed. I had seen many monsters in my time, but for some reason the beak of the sea creature and others like it were among the most unnerving of anything – even more so than mighty jaws filled with teeth.

'Filled with teeth': my mind gave me a start with that last thought, and I paused to consider the now rapidly falling mountains in a new light. The resemblance to the large, vicious beak of the sea creature was striking now, and I realized that a beak could easily fit the description of a mouth without teeth. I rushed back to the captain's cabin, then knocked on the door. It swung open after a moment, and I saw Ingun sitting in his usual position on his chair. He glanced up at me as I entered, not even waiting for the invitation.

"What is it?" His tone was both polite and dangerous. I could tell that he wasn't overly fond of being bothered without requesting the intrusion, but I didn't have time to stop and think about this. I immediately blurted out, "We must stop the ship."

He seemed to consider the demand for a moment before shrugging. "Very well." I felt the vessel stop moving, and remembered Karl telling me that it was controlled by the captain's will. "Am I to know why I must stop my return to the surface?"

"Come and take a look." Was all I replied, and I then returned quickly to the small library where I had originally been looking out. Below us, the mountains were faint but still clearly visible, their resemblance to the beak of a sea creature still startling and even a little unnerving as we looked down on them.

"Well." Ingun was the first to break the silence that ensued. "Congratulations, my boy. We will begin our descent immediately." With these words, he turned and went back to his cabin, and I resumed my studies in the library as I felt the ship slowly begin to descend into the dark waters.


	16. Into the Mouth of Death

I could feel my heart racing as the ship began to descend toward the two mountains, wondering if this would be another dead end or if we would finally find what we were looking for. The mountains slowly began to draw closer, till the hideous beak was no longer recognizable, but as we closed in we could begin to see what might have been a cavern nestled in between the two peaks. It wasn't until we had actually begun to physically descend the mountains peaks in the ship that we could actually see the cavern, though, for such was the nature of the light in this place that from above everything on the ocean floor looked dark. However, now it was clear – deep in what seemed a valley between the two mountains, overlapped on all sides by the blue rock, a large hole opened up into the ocean floor. As we descended into it, I had the vague sensation that this must be what creatures felt who were swallowed whole by predators. The rocks that lined this "throat" had many erratic features which gave it a certain resemblance to living organs – a feature that was unsettling to all of us. Even though we knew we had entered a normal cavern entrance and logically there was no reason to be unnerved by perfectly normal terrain features, we found ourselves glancing around in a sort of nervous silence that I began to wonder if we might even be afraid to break.

Then came the noises – like the faint rumblings of an earthquake slowly building up, yet so small and far away that we all had to wonder if we were truly hearing them, or if they sprung from the imaginings of our now nervous minds. For a moment I wondered if I was the only one experiencing this, but looking around at the eyes of the sailors I could see the same vague sense of awe and premonition lurking behind their otherwise impassible expressions. I couldn't help wondering whether Ingun, sitting far away from us in the captain's cabin, was experiencing the same sensations as we were in the face of this unknown adventure. The dark walls around us seemed to reverberate as we passed by, like a creature welcoming the arrival of its first meal in centuries.

I sighed and shook my head to clear it – I knew that I would never get anywhere if I continued to allow my mind to play tricks on me in that way. How was it that I had traveled throughout the world of Weyard – even to the great waterfalls where the oceans spilled over the end of the earth – and was so easily frightened by a few little mind tricks, probably put in place for just the purpose of scaring off intruders? I looked around at the others, who still remained absolutely silent and seemingly frozen in their places, and chuckled slightly.

"Well, I'd say that, all things considered, this has been pretty easy so far." I glanced over their faces as I spoke, wondering if I had the same impassive, almost frozen appearance a few moments earlier. Nobody moved or responded to my statement, however, and for several long moments I began to wonder if they had heard me at all.

Presently Ulgar, one of the adepts on the boat, stirred slowly and looked at me, his eyes holding the faint hazy appearance of one who has just awakened from a deep sleep or a trance. "Indeed. I only hope that the words are as true as they sound." As he spoke, a couple of other crew members also stirred, apparently awakened from their reverie by the sound of human voices.

"This is a strange place that you've brought us to." Murmured Karl, his eyes still revealing that the haze of the trance had not fully dissipated yet. "A very strange place."

"I've been to many places stranger than this." I wasn't entirely sure if that was true or not, especially as I looked around and noticed that some of the crew, particularly those who were not adepts, were still motionless and impassive, but their eyes seemed to wear a haunted expression now. I began to wonder if there was some kind of a test that would only allow adepts beyond an unseen barrier that guarded this place – this safeguard against the ultimate power of alchemy. Then again, perhaps it was a test of the individual will, and those able to access and use psynergy had a naturally stronger will than those who were unable to do so. I continued to look around, now slightly worried as the remaining crew members continued in their immobility, impassive and appearing somewhat fearful and not hearing a word that was said throughout the room.

At that moment the fore hatch slammed open and the captain entered, his eyes scanning the few who remained in the state of reverie as he did. He remained silent for several moments, but when he spoke his voice was hard and commanding.

"What's this?! My whole crew driven mad by a simple journey through a submerged cave? When I signed you on, I thought that I was hiring a crew of brave and noble men – not of cowards and poltroons! Now, snap to, before I shake this weakness from you!"

Three out of the remaining four blinked, then their eyes, which had been staring out into oblivion, slowly began to come into focus. The last, however, remained as he was, except that his head turned slightly to face the captain.

"We do not belong in this place – the spirits, they push us away… everything away… dead…" His voice was as dull and as faraway as his eyes, with only a vague sense of premonition and fear tangible in the tones. I saw a few of the others shiver at the words, but the captain seemed unfazed.

Well, maybe unfazed wasn't quite the right word. Turning his full attention on the last sailor, he moved up so that he was standing face to face with him, no more than six paces away. He then proceeded to raise his voice almost to a scream.

"Is this how you behave in the face of danger? You would serve under me and can't even hold our mind against a few imagined terrors?" His face was only inches from the other man's now, and I vaguely saw the man flinch back from him – a good sign, I thought, considering it meant that he was not entirely lost. "I'll give you two choices, Janos: either get over your fears or get off my ship!"

There was silence for a few long moments, and I began to wonder if the man would be forcibly ejected from the ship right there, but then he blinked, and his vacant eyes slowly began to focus in on the captain. He started back as the haze began to clear, the captain's imposing figure coming into focus before him, and started to stammer out some sort of apology.

"Save it." The captain turned to address the whole room now. "Gentlemen – you have all seen many dangers during the time that you have served under me. What we have before us now is likely to be among the weirdest and most dangerous adventures ever undertaken, and we cannot be overcome by the first and perhaps easiest obstacle. If you thought that an entrance such as this would be unprotected, then I must say that you are disappointingly – even appallingly naïve. Now, prepare your minds for what lies ahead – though I doubt that we will even be seeing most of the challenges – they our for our passenger. Remember, anybody who does not take heed may very well come out of this as a corpse."

With those words of encouragement, he turned and strode back out of the room, leaving the crew looking back and forth with something that resembled bewilderment on their faces. I smiled as I sat back against one of the walls, half closing my eyes. This was going to be one hell of an adventure.


	17. The First Obstacle

It was perhaps fifteen to twenty minutes later that we emerged from the long tunnel into what seemed to be a large underwater chamber. The captain took the boat once around the chamber, but could find no place to proceed further, so he brought the boat up. In a couple of moments, we had broken the plane of water above us and found ourselves in a subterranean vault, with a small, rock ledge protruding out from an opening in the wall low enough for one to climb onto off of the boat. The boat settled next to this opening, and I hoisted myself up onto the ledge.

"I'll be back soon." I called to the people waiting down by the boat. I then turned to survey the passage that was before me. The rocks ahead appeared to be of a purely natural composition, despite the deep blue color and the odd ambient light that surrounded me. There were even a large number of stalactites hanging from the ceiling of the passage that I was about to travel down, as well as a stalagmite or two and even a couple of columns. The rocks were firm, though a bit damp and treacherous to one who was less sure-footed, and in moments I had picked my way through the tunnel to a large chamber on the other side.

When I reached the entrance to the chamber, my heart skipped a beat at the scene which opened up before me. The blue rock opened up into a gigantic cavern, stretching so high that I could barely even perceive the ceiling and wide enough to hold an entire city. Stalagmites sprung up in many places, and many broken rock fragments made any path through the area treacherous for the less sure-footed. The striations in the rock almost created the illusion of walls of water, frozen as they leapt up over your head just before they were able to engulf you. Here and there I could hear a scuffling sound, as though some small creature were moving about in the cavern where I could not see. Toward the center there was a large structure that vaguely resembled a lighthouse, though it also bore some similarities to some fortresses I had seen on my prior journeys. The walls were composed of the same stone that the entire area thus far contained, and rose up fifty feet on the outermost barrier, and behind that another tower, which resembled the lighthouse, rose up another seventy at least. It appeared as though the shape of the structure was roughly circular, though it was impossible to tell from that distance. I sighed and slowly began to pick my way across the fragments of stone that littered the way. As I drew closer, I could make out some sort of figure – carved from the same stone as the structure, it appeared, wrapped around the outer wall of the castle and rising formidably over the other side, as though a symbol of some sort of guardian. When I was within a few hundred feet, I could see that it was a great dragon – quite intimidating despite the fact that its stone-carved features were quite incapable of movement and consequently of causing harm. I could also see various gargoyles perched on the top of the outer wall, all of them carved of the same deep blue stone. Whatever this structure was, it certainly hadn't been built for the weak of heart.

The entire time I was approaching the structure, I kept looking around for some sort of guardian – something to keep the way from any who sought to traverse it without power. However, when I finally approached what appeared to be the entrance, I had encountered nothing that moved or even looked to present a challenge. I was beginning to wonder if we had, indeed, discovered the right place – this all seemed too easy, especially considering the journeys to light the elemental lighthouses. I sighed and pushed on the entrance – it didn't budge.

I now began to look around the area, knowing that there must be some way to get into the structure. My eyes quickly fell on a large plaque mounted on one of the nearby stalagmites, and I moved over and began to read. It was written in one of the ancient languages, but fortunately I had been forced to study all of the tongues of alchemy as part of my studies under Kraden, so I was able to make out the words that were written.

'Wanderer, adept you must be,

Else the way is closed to thee.

If thy power's the unseen,

Enter where the stone is green;

If thy power be in fire,

Heat the dragon with thy ire;

If it be in snow and ice,

Free the runner from his vice;

If thy power be the earth,

Give the lady a new birth."

I pondered this for a few minutes. Obviously, the unseen must refer to the Jupiter adepts – theirs was the power of the wind and the mind. Fire I knew to be Mars adepts, and Snow and Ice were states of water, which must be Mercury Adepts. I knew, then, that I fell in the last category, but the riddle didn't really seem to tell me what I was supposed to do. Give the lady a new birth? What lady?

I now paused to take in my surroundings again. The walls towered up before me, the large statue of a dragon clinging to them and still as fearsome as ever. Stalagmites clung to the floor in many places, and broken bits of rock were still littered all across the floor. There was a large pool of water not far from the castle, which had been invisible to me before because of how closely it matched the hue of the stone that surrounded it, and it came to me after looking at it for a few minutes that it resembled the form of a running man. However, I could see nothing anywhere around that even resembled a woman. I sighed, and slowly began to trudge around the walls, looking for a clue.

On the other side of the structure everything looked pretty much the same, except that here I had a much better view of the dragon's head and large, sharp teeth. The carving was an excellent depiction, based on the few encounters that I had experienced, with the reptilian face carved in such detail that each scale could be individually discerned, and the eyes even seemed to have that dark glint that was the foreboding of a sure and sudden death. Just over my head, one of the wings extended out from the wall, ending in a cruel claw that was nearly twice the length of my index finger, and I remembered seeing the barbed tail which acted as a whiplash in battle as well. However, looking around I saw nothing else, save another jumble of stalagmites and more rock fragments littered everywhere. I sighed in frustration and sat down.

As I sat there, my eyes focused on no particular object, I thought about the light that existed here in this chamber- far beneath the surface of the waters. I unconsciously began to scan for the source of that light, and realized that it was coming from the stalagmites that rose up all around me – almost like miniature stars. I smiled at the thought as I looked down – some of them even looked as though they could have formed some of the shapes of the star groups that were recognized all across Weyard. For instance, I could almost instantly see off to my left a star group that we called "Orphesna." Straight ahead and a bit to the right, there was another group that was almost an exact match for the star group "Yurishmia," a group that was often said to glow brighter on the night of a wedding or the forming of a new couple.

I rose with a start, suddenly remembering that when this star group was visible, which was about two months out of the average year, there was an increase in the number of female children born and a decrease in the number of males. For this reason, the star group was commonly called "The Lady Giver," or more commonly just "The Lady." I quickly went over to that group of stalagmites and rested my hand slowly on one that was near the center of the group, willing it to revive.

There was a stirring sound, and slowly the stalactites began to glow brighter. In a moment, a light had collected near the center of the stalactite group, and then there was a sudden beam that was so bright that I had to close my eyes. When I reopened them, I saw that there was now an entrance in the wall a ways to my left. With a slight smile now on my face, I made my way over to discover what lay inside.


	18. Into the Fortress

The inside of the courtyard was the same as the outer area, with the exception that the ground was free of debris and the walls to the inner tower seemed to be composed partly of a normal, slightly blue-gray rock up to the point where the outer wall concealed it from view. As I stepped in, my eyes found a door on the opposite side of the courtyard, around to the left of the inner tower, and I quickly began to make my way across toward it.

I stopped about halfway, however, when a strange grating sound caught my ear, and I turned to look back in the general direction from which I thought it had come. I could not see anything different immediately, but when I slowly looked up toward the top of the outer walls I realized that all of the gargoyle statues had broken loose and were now sort of hovering over the courtyard. Their eyes glowed with an eerie blue light, malice so strong that it was almost tangible emanating from them, and I could swear that I heard the groaning of rock as their wings slowly rose and fell. It occurred to me to wonder how the heavy creatures stayed in the air at all, but the thought was quickly dismissed from my mind when I briefly considered the many wonders I had seen in my journey through Weyard in years past. I dropped a hand to my sword hilt, and in a flash held it before me in a ready position, letting them know this was no novice they faced.

I heard a rush of wind behind me and slightly above, and quickly dropped to a crouch, swinging my sword up and across in a lightning-fast arc. My lip curled in satisfaction as I felt the blade connect and sink deep into the stone, and I withdrew the blade quickly as the creature tumbled just over my head and to the ground. Before it even hit, however, I was moving as I caught a rush of movement to my left out of the corner of my eye. I stepped up and to the right, coming around in a complete circle and leading with my blade at about eye level. Once again the blade connected and this time went clean through the opponent, and I turned to see the creature get up from the ground, half of its left wing severed from the strike. Not too worried about the crippled Gargoyle, I quickly rolled as another dropped from almost right above me. I was back on my feet in an instant though, and before it could regain the air I hit it with a clay spire from above – it appeared momentarily stunned by the move, but I didn't have time to watch it as a fourth, bolder attacker, came at me head on. I stood my ground, ready to split it down the middle of the head, when I heard the rush of wind behind me and realized the trick just in time. I dropped to the ground and rolled quickly to the side, barely getting out of the way as the two stone creatures collided in the air. Sparks flew and I heard a great cracking noise, and both fell to the ground right where I had been less than a second ago.

I winced as I felt a sharp pain suddenly in my side, and quickly rolled and jumped to my feet. The injured gargoyle was just a couple feet away from me, bringing its good wing back from the strike. Fortunately, it seemed that the gargoyle was thrown off balance by the injury, or my adventure might have ended right then and there, but it had missed its opportunity, and in a moment its stone head fell from its body to join the others on the stone of the courtyard. To my right, I saw the dazed gargoyle slowly rising, and with a quick spin I launched my sword at it and then watched as the blade drove deep into its neck, dropping it instantly. I quickly retrieved the sword and went back to a ready position, looking at the remaining gargoyles that still circled above me. I knew that I had been careless in that opening portion of the fight, but I could no longer afford that luxury. Every reaction, every strike had to be perfect from this point onward, since my opponents now knew exactly what they were dealing with.

The next attack came just as quickly and was much better coordinated. I heard the first coming from the back, and had barely sidestepped the attack before another came in from the side, striking for my neck and shoulders. I managed to duck under that one, but another was already swooping in from the front, and before I could bring my weapon to bear I had to jump back and to my right, right in the path of a fourth creature. I dropped completely to the ground, stabbing my sword upward in a desperate move and was shocked to actually feel the weapon connect. Not having time to survey the damage done, I rolled over and to the right, using one of the fallen gargoyles as a partial cover.

I saw they were regrouping, and took the opportunity to tap into my other resources. I quickly focused my psynergy, dropping large spires of stone into the midst of the group. I smiled in satisfaction as I saw three of the creatures drop slightly, two of them now flapping and leaning awkwardly as they flew. There was a shrieking – a high pitch, grating sound that was painful even to hear, and in an instant the remaining one dove toward me – exactly the reaction I had been hoping for. I stayed right where I was till it was almost upon me, then struck straight ahead, dropping just underneath its deadly claws as I did so. Its momentum carried it into my blade, and I felt the sharp, sturdy weapon split the head in half all the way to the neck. I quickly dislodged the weapon and rolled out of the way as it fell, though despite the quick effort I still felt it clip my shoulder. I grimaced, fighting the pain back, and jumped quickly back to my feet, my weapon arcing up and across at another gargoyle that had followed the first into the dive, perhaps thinking to catch me unaware.

There were now only eight gargoyles remaining, and two of them at least were wounded. However, that still meant six that could attack in coordination, and, judging from their speed, if they continued at the current rate I needed to try to even the odds a little more. I knew an earthquake wouldn't do any good, and the creatures had dispersed now to avoid being hit by the clay spire, so I figured my best chance was to try to at least take one out completely. I struck quickly, before they had a chance to drive, focusing my psynergy into the most powerful single venus attack that I had encountered thus far: odyssey. The attack struck one of the creatures and dropped it from its perch aloft, causing it to crack into many pieces as it hit the ground below. The other creatures, realizing that they would share the same fate if they waited for me to attack again, immediately resumed the attack.

The next few minutes were a blur, but by this time I had sufficiently warmed up that my fighting instincts were at their height. By the time everything was finished, the seven remaining gargoyles all lay scattered about the courtyard, and I had a few tears in my shirt and some scrapes and bruises but was otherwise fine. I looked over to the door that led into the main tower, and saw that it was now open, so I quickly made my way over to it and soon was inside.


	19. A Piece of the Puzzle

Once inside the inner tower, I encountered a large, spiral staircase that was for the moment the only way I could progress further. I went up the stairs and found myself in a large chamber with something that appeared to be an altar at the far end. There were many engravings in the wall, but the one that caught my eye was one of the ones closer to me. It depicted a large mountain with what appeared to be a few houses scattered about the base, and there appeared to be fire spouting from the top of the mountain. There followed what appeared to be a sequence of carvings which depicted four lighthouses, and immediately following I saw what I knew to be depictions of the beacons being lit. Following the depictions of the lighting of the beacons, there was a great battle, and then a picture of a sun rising over the erupting mountain. There was what appeared to be a person standing atop the mountain, and the carvings showed what appeared to be some kind of light around him, and I realized this was a representation of the infusion of alchemy that Alex had received when he had climbed Mt. Aleph as the golden sun rose over it. Now the pictures cut to the ocean, and then four large caverns, each containing a tower similar to the one that I was in right now, and then a fifth chamber – smaller than the others, but holding such a prominent place in the continuity of the depiction that I had to conclude that it was more important than any of the others. As I looked at the imagery, I was moving slowly along the wall so that I could follow it all the way to its conclusion, and the final carvings depicted a battle between the person with alchemy and another person, which seemed to result in the defeat of the one with alchemy. I realized that this was meant to show that one who successfully gathered the items contained in these caverns would be able to destroy even a person who had gained the power of alchemy. It was almost like the place was created as a failsafe in case alchemy fell into the wrong hands, and from the carvings that were scattered across the walls it appeared that it had been known long ago that it would.

Just as I was about to continue down the path set before me, I saw some words carved into the wall after all the pictures. It was written in an archaic form, but I was able to read them mostly thanks to my studies with Kraden, though when I had gone through them I had resented the language work and found it boring. The message was short, and in my opinion extremely ambiguous, but I had a feeling it might be pertinent to something that would happen later on, so I wrote it down.

"The adept who would wield this power must be pure of heart and strong of soul. To ensure his purity and strengthen his resolve, he must undergo the four trials. First he will be scoured by ice and water. If he proves true, he must then be purified by flame. When he has passed through the flames, he will broken by the wind, and when the wind has left him, he will be strengthened by the earth. If, however, he is found unworthy, then he will be removed from this place and cursed to wander the earth – dead, yet not dead – until another can be found to take his place."

Once I had finished writing this, I place the parchment upon which it had been written back in the small pack that I always carried with me, and continued on through the tower. As with the lighthouses, I encountered several puzzles, each requiring the skills of an adept to solve, but I found – almost to my disappointment – that there were no creatures blocking the way here. When I finally reached the top of the tower, I found a small, almost square room, with windows on all sides. In one corner there was a small chest sitting on a stone table. The chest was the same color as the rest of the rocks and the tower, with the exception that there was black trim around corners of the lid and the lid itself, and the table on which it was set seemed to be an extension of the wall, as though it had just formed or been hewn from the stone around it. I slowly moved over to the chest and tested the lid. To my surprise, there was no trap and the lid opened easily.

Inside the chest there was a small gemstone, shaped like a tear or a droplet of water, but made of what appeared to be some sort of obsidian. It was completely black, with small striations across the surface that gave the illusion of ripples of water running across the surface. It occurred to me as I looked at it that black was an odd color to choose for such a gem, but at the same time it had an enchanting and almost mesmerizing quality, especially the way the ambient light danced off the smooth surface like moonlight off the surface of the water on a dark night. I reached forward slowly and took the gem. It felt cool in the surface of my hand, and for a moment I even wondered if it was a bit damp, but I quickly dismissed the notion and slipped it into a small pouch that I carried on my belt. I closed the pouch quickly, and then, almost as an afterthought, closed the chest as well, and then I started my descent down the long flights of stairs. In a few minutes, I had come to the bottom of the tower, and was back outside of the outer wall.

As I exited the area, I heard a sort of snapping noise behind me, and turned to see that the door had closed again when I had left. I sighed and looked out, and this time I saw something that I hadn't seen the last time I had scanned the cavern – a large opening in the far eastern wall that appeared to have a sort of red glow emanating from it, and I immediately started off in that direction. I had only taken a few steps when I heard a sort of cracking sound behind me, and I turned quickly to look. I immediately noticed that the stone dragon was no longer on the wall of the fortress, and a brief scan of the room did not reveal its present location. As I continued to look back at the tower, scanning from one end of the large cavern to the other in that direction, I heard – and felt – a heavy impact on the rock behind me. I instinctively went into action immediately, diving forward and rolling, not even bothering to look back as I heard something connect with the ground where I had just been standing. I came back to my feet facing my opponent – and standing before me it looked much larger than it had on the wall. The head itself was twice my size, and it occurred to me as I looked at the feet that each of the toes was about as long as my leg, and the razor sharp claws were about the length of my forearm. The next moment, as I dove backward and to the side, I noticed that the creature's teeth were about the length of my feet and each eye was nearly the size of my head. I started calculating my odds, but quickly forgot the results, deciding they would be bad for my morale. Besides, since when had the odds really mattered in any of my journeys?

I quickly tapped into what was left of my psynergy power to pull out my most powerful spell. The dragon lunged at me again, but just before it would have connected its momentum was halted by a large blade driving into it and breaking the armor on its shimmering underside. I quickly jumped backwards to avoid a swipe of the creature's leg, then ran underneath with my weapon. The dragon backed up, but it wasn't quick enough – with all my strength I plunged my sword deep into the broken chest armor, then withdrew and ran clear of the body. I suddenly felt the breath leave my body as the tail caught me a glancing blow, knocking me several feet into the air and about fifteen feet back from the creature. However, my weapon had done its work – the creature was now thrashing about in its death throes, and in a way the tail swipe turned out to be a blessing since I was able to watch the creature die from a safe distance. I grinned slightly, then winced as I got up and rubbed my side – there was going to be a bruise there for a very long time. I started to go over to inspect the dead creature, thinking that this entire battle had been too easy – even easier than fighting the gargoyles to enter the tower – when suddenly the large beast dissipated into what seemed to be a mist, and before I could react the mist had plunged into me. It felt as though everything inside me was turning to ice. I tried to call out, to do something, but already my limbs were too frozen to move. I could feel my consciousness fading fast as I toppled to the rocky ground.


	20. The Second Tower

When my eyes slowly opened several minutes later, I wasn't entirely sure that I was awake. The place that I found myself in was indeed the same point at which I had lost consciousness, but everything seemed so different to me. As I slowly regained my senses, I rose to my feet and looked around the chamber, looking for the only landmark I recognized in this cavern – the tower from which I had so narrowly escaped. To my surprise, the cavern was now empty, save the stalactites and stalagmites that still littered the ceiling and floor, and the rubble that was strewn all about. The tower had completely vanished, and any traces of the creatures that I remembered battling were also gone, as though the cavern floor had opened and consumed all of them. The memory of the final battle slowly came back to me, and I gazed down at my body, amazed that I barely felt the effects of the beating that it had received. I was even more surprised to discover that all injuries were apparently minor – there were only minor abrasions on my torso and legs and a slightly tender area near the back of my right thigh, but I knew that after what I had experienced I should have been in much worse condition than I was. Hell, I thought, I should be dead. The thought was unnerving and my continued existence somewhat unexplainable, so I shook it from my mind and instead determined to press forward in the quest I had undertaken. I quickly looked ahead – in the direction that my current path was leading – and saw that the way to the next cavern still lay open. In contrast to the place which I now found myself in, the cavern seemed to glow with a red light and the rocks themselves were almost crimson in hue. As I entered the passageway, I realized that the atmosphere was getting warmer around me, and by the time that I entered the next cavern I was drenched with perspiration.

The cavern that I now found myself in was similar in many ways to the last one. The floor was littered with debris, and stalactites and stalagmites were scattered everywhere throughout the place. In the center stood a large tower, as in the other, but around the outer wall of this one there was a red, glowing moat that appeared to be entirely composed of lava. As I drew closer to the tower, I began to make out the forms of gargoyles sitting atop the wall, but there was no dragon carved into this one. I couldn't help wondering if this was a good or a bad omen, considering the danger that the last, seemingly innocuous carvings had posed.

"All well," I muttered the words aloud, "Here we go again." I had soon reached the entrance, and to my surprise found no puzzles such as had been at the first tower. Instead, there was an inscription carved into a slate that was perched atop the door.

"To come this far, an adept you must be;The way is open already to thee."

I found this a bit unnerving – it had been too easy so far. In my journey through Weyard, each of the lighthouses had become progressively harder to make our way through, and I somehow expected that it would be similar here – this power, after all, was supposed to be enough to overcome the power of alchemy. How could this challenge possibly be easier than the one before? I couldn't argue with the scene before me – though. Apparently, all I had to overcome were a few gargoyles.

"Pathetic." I muttered as I made my way through the door, then started slightly as I heard it slam shut behind me. Looking up, I saw a red light gleaming in the eyes of the gargoyles on the walls, and in a moment, just as the previous tower, the creatures sprang up in to the air and began circling. I couldn't help feeling a little déjà vu as the first one dived toward me. I easily sidestepped the attack.

The next moment I found myself altering my intended strike and going into a backward roll as a column of fire spouted from the gargoyle's eyes, turning the ground where I had just been standing into a pool of lava. "Ok," I said, beginning to re-evaluate my situation, "Not good."

I jumped back again as another attack came on, and realized that I was going to have to finish this quickly before the whole courtyard was turned into a pool of lava. I frantically searched for something that would counter the gargoyle's fire, and just as I was about to give up, my hand touched something cool hidden in the small bag that I carried on my waist. I withdrew it quickly, and immediately recognized the douse gem – an item that allowed me to tap into an element that was not native to my innate psynergy. I focused my thoughts quickly, and not a moment too soon, for I was almost within range of the attacking gargoyle when a flood of water broke from above him and doused his flames. I acted quickly, leaping into the air and severing his head before he could recover from the move, and he fell into the lava, slowly dissolving into the pool of liquid rock.

The rest of the battle was long, but having discovered a method to destroy my enemies I now only had to employ it, and eventually no more creatures appeared to threaten me. I had a few minor burns, mostly on my torso, and molten rock was scattered in pools throughout the courtyard, but there was still a safe path to the entrance to the tower. I followed this, and in a few moments found myself in an upper chamber. This chamber was unimpressive in size, but around the edges bits of liquid magma leapt up, dancing along the wall for a while before returning into some pool hidden beneath the floor, and in one corner stood a small table, with a small chest sitting on it. I opened the chest, and inside found a small gem, composed of the same black stone as the former gem had been, but carved into the shape of a dragon's head – a representation of fire. I quickly dropped it into my pouch and exited the tower, hoping that the door had opened and there would be no further hindrance to my exit.

I had nearly made it to the door, which I discovered was still closed, when suddenly I heard a great rush behind me, as though a gust of wind had suddenly reverberated through the chamber. I turned just in time to see a column of fire shoot from the top of the tower, making a beeline for me. I barely had time to think. "Not again…" When the column struck me. There were a few agonizing moments of searing pain, and I felt as though I was being burned alive from the inside, and then everything went mercifully black.


End file.
